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Floor Speech

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to honor my neighbor and my young friend, Noah MacMillan, who we lost last July when he died of complications from colon cancer at the age of 33 years old.

What an honor it is to speak to America this morning about Noah MacMillan. Noah's brilliance, his gentle soul, and his boundless creativity live on in the hearts of everybody he touched, in the truly extraordinary and imperishable art that he left behind, and in the beautiful devotion of his remarkable parents, Jeff MacMillan and Lucinda Leach; and his brothers, Seth and Julian.

Noah was an accomplished artist. He was a talented athlete and a soccer player. He was a gifted chef, and he was a generous teacher.

His stunning and thought-provoking illustrations were accomplished in a variety of news outlets, including The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Bloomberg Business, Sports Illustrated, and Riverfront Times, to name just a few of the places that recognized his exceptional art.

One of the crowning achievements of Noah's life and one of his final projects was an illustration that fused his passions for exuberant, colorful art and for the game of soccer.

The vibrant stamp that you see next to me here bursting with energy and power honors the electrifying achievements of women's soccer in America.

It was released by the United States Postal Service at the beginning of this year, 2023. Now, countless little replicas of Noah's art are flying all across the country on envelopes and packages, inspiring artists and athletes, especially young girl soccer players everywhere, all over America and all over the world.

Noah first came to battle cancer at the age of 23. He had the same oncological surgeon that I had at Johns Hopkins; Dr. Efron.

Noah's quiet courage and insistence on living joyfully carried him through treatment and through a lot of times of adversity over the next 10 years of his life.

In that intervening decade before colon cancer stole this splendid young man from us, he lived with great purpose and great passion and an unwavering dedication to his art and to the people in his life who he loved and was devoted to.

To honor Noah's generosity and his creativity, his loving family has launched a scholarship in his honor at his alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis.

This fund will make it possible for a high school student artist to attend the same summer program at Wash U. in St. Louis that gave Noah the confidence and the skills to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist and an illustrator, a dream that led just one of his pieces of art to become a stamp in our country.

Noah was not only a remarkable artist, he was an astonishingly quick- witted and gentle and loving human being.

He left an indelible mark on everyone who knew him, including his fantastic care team led by Dr. Jonathan Efron and nurse practitioner Tam Warczynski.

Noah is survived by his fiancee, Hitomi Inoue; his devoted parents, Jeffrey and Lucinda; his two loving brothers, Julian and Seth; his extended family; countless friends and neighbors; grateful, loving students; and, of course, his timeless amazing art, which now the entire country will get to enjoy.

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